diff --git a/contrib/initscripts/debian-upstart.init b/contrib/initscripts/debian-upstart.init
index e4b51bc7..f48ad757 100644
--- a/contrib/initscripts/debian-upstart.init
+++ b/contrib/initscripts/debian-upstart.init
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ do_start_daemon() {
   # (warning about -m and -p only deepest - we use -p to ignore if already exists)
   # shellcheck disable=SC2174
   mkdir -m 0700 -p /var/run/log-courier
-  chown "${LOG_COURIER_USER}:${LOG_COURIER_GROUP}" /var/run/log-courier
+  chown -R "${LOG_COURIER_USER}:${LOG_COURIER_GROUP}" /var/run/log-courier
 
   start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile "$PIDFILE" --user "${LOG_COURIER_USER}" --chuid "${LOG_COURIER_USER}:${LOG_COURIER_GROUP}" --exec /bin/sh --test > /dev/null || return 1
   start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --make-pidfile --background --pidfile "$PIDFILE" --user "${LOG_COURIER_USER}" --chuid "${LOG_COURIER_USER}:${LOG_COURIER_GROUP}" --exec "$DAEMON" -- $LOG_COURIER_ARGS || return 2
diff --git a/contrib/initscripts/log-courier-systemd.env b/contrib/initscripts/log-courier-systemd.env
index a65e8487..cc9949a8 100644
--- a/contrib/initscripts/log-courier-systemd.env
+++ b/contrib/initscripts/log-courier-systemd.env
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 ## User
 # To change the user or group that log-courier runs as, modify the systemd unit
 # file. This is usually found at /usr/lib/systemd/system/log-courier.service.
+# Remember to update the ownership of /var/lib/log-courier to the new user and
+# group.
 
 ## Command line arguments
 # See: https://github.com/driskell/log-courier/blob/master/docs/CommandLineArguments.md
diff --git a/contrib/initscripts/log-courier.env b/contrib/initscripts/log-courier.env
index 18038b9c..55032a4b 100644
--- a/contrib/initscripts/log-courier.env
+++ b/contrib/initscripts/log-courier.env
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 ## User
 # Set the user to run log-courier as. Be sure to stop the service cleanly before
 # changing these values, as the service stop only looks for processes matching
-# these values
+# these values. Remember to update the ownership of /var/lib/log-courier to the
+# new user and group.
 LOG_COURIER_USER="log-courier"
 LOG_COURIER_GROUP="log-courier"